Should Slender vlogs/blogs have trigger warnings?

I saw some people fighting talking over the question on tumblr that should slender man vlogs and blogs should have trigger warnings? 
In my opinion: I don't like trigger warnings in the Slenderverse. It seems unnecessary for series/blog based on a horror character, they spoil what's going to happen and takes away the surprise(Milo's tape etc). People who want trigger warnings should already know what they are getting into, hell it's about unknown entity stalking/killing/traumating people, they should already know what kind of stuff will/might happen. I probably said it wrong but Lee from WhisperedFaith and Heather from DarkHarvest said it better than me. As haisojrellim said "The people who ask for trigger warnings in the Slenderverse are the same people who got angry and needed WARNING: THIS IS HOT to be emblazoned on the sides of coffee cups." or as I like to put it people who complain about the lack of trigger warnings in the Slenderverse are type of the people who complain whenever they touch fire they get burned.

But's your opinion?

Link to Lee's post about the matter:here

I agree with you completely.
 
They know what they're getting into when they watch a Slender Man ARG, there's bound to be surprises and shocking moments in them. I prefer the surprise and the shock value in the series, it makes them a lot better.
 
If they don't like the surprises or shocks then they don't have to watch them. The Slender Man mythos is filled to the brim with them and they're expected, people who are familiar with the mythos know this.

Trigger warnings would pretty much ruin some of the experience of watching the series so I really don't think we need any trigger warnings.

Trigger warning are dumb

Me, NearTheEnd, and Josiah Miller recorded a podcast today about this.

It'll be up soon.

Here's how I feel about the matter, and if you're easily offended I suggest to discontinue reading.

Trigger warnings are possibly one of the most dumbest things I have ever heard of. It wasn't until recently that we even needed these silly things put in place. People are getting waaaay too sensitive about everything.
As said in Chieftain's post, people who are sensitive about these subjects shouldn't even be watching things of the horror genre.  Honestly, I'd say ignore them. 98% of the time they are saying words trigger them for attention. These Tumblr kids created the term, it's now time to erase it.

So, should trigger warnings be put into Slender vlogs and/or blogs? Hell no.

I'm ambivalent about trigger warnings. In some contexts, they're a good thing - the last thing I want when I'm going about my daily life is to bump into something that's going to send me into a panic attack, cause a relapse or cease me functioning normally in any way. No one really wants that because it sucks. 

That said, people who use trigger warnings are at least partially aware of what will trigger them. Sure, some triggers sneak up on you and you can be triggered by what seems like the most random thing, but trigger warnings attached to videos, stories and the like pretty much fall into specific categories, like self-harm/suicide/depression/sexual assault/child abuse/etc. If you know you're likely to be triggered by something, you'll probably avoid it. I can't speak for all the vlogs and blogs out there, but the trigger-worthy things are foreshadowed and the tone of the works hints pretty strongly that things that may be triggering to people are likely to occur at some point. Half the horror of the best vlogs comes from things sneaking up on you and the atmosphere of dread built up by a sense of growing paranoia. And given the well-known nature of all Slenderman things ever, it's pretty obvious that generally horrible stuff is going to happen, so on slender vlogs and blogs, trigger warnings probably aren't necessary. 

That said, trigger warnings are not like "CAUTION: CONTENTS HOT" warnings on coffee cups. If you spill your coffee, you'll lightly burn your hand and if you sip it too early you'll burn your tongue a little bit. A trigger pretty much puts you back in the exact state you were when the trauma occurred - you relive the event through the emotions you felt at that time, and nothing is more horrific. I'd take a million coffee burns to experiencing what I did all over again. It's not even slightly comparable, and it's certainly not a cry for attention. Have a little empathy.

gekoladie wrote:

 Have a little empathy.

I'm sorry but I can't have empathy for people who complain about a youtube horror series for having horror in it. If there are any place for trigger warnings, it isn't the slenderverse. I not against trigger warnings in general but they are unnecessary and immersion breaking and spoil the fun/horror of surprise in the slenderverse. I prefer finding the foreshadowing myself than spoon feed in the description,title or the first few lines. In the slenderverse you know bad stuff is going to happen but what kind of bad stuff is going to happen? That's one of the many things that integrates me(and possibly many people)  about the slenderverse,you somewhat know but at the same time you somewhat don't know. Adding trigger warnings to slenderverse videos/blogs takes away the suspense/fun/horror of not knowing, you might as well spoil the entire plot of movie on it's trailer and the blurb of book etc. 
But's just that's my opinion and experience.

I'm pretty sure gekoladie just ignored all of the posts and just down-voted everything that seemed to be against trigger warnings.

If one's mental issues are that extreme, then I doubt they should be anywhere near any Slenderman-related creations. In fact, if it's that bad, I don't think they should be on the internet at all. If they choose to be in these places, then it is their responsibility and their fault that they were driven into these panic attacks. Not the creator of whatever "triggered" them.

Trigger warnings aren't even legitimate anymore. The term has been blown all out of proportion. I'm honestly tired of hearing it. We didn't used to be so sensitive.

It's belittling to declare trigger warnings useless and pointless - thanks for demeaning people's responses to trauma as "gross". Comparing the warnings on a coffee cup to a trigger warning is actually pretty offensive, as is saying people who have experienced damaging things in their past shouldn't be on the internet. It's difficult to understand triggers unless you are a survivor of some traumatic event yourself because you've never had the joy of a flashback, which is scarier than every slender blog and vlog combined. 

I'm not saying we should have trigger warnings on slender vids and whatnot. I don't actually want trigger warnings on them, but that's because they're unnecessary in that context for the same reason horror movies don't have a list of trigger warnings at the start of the film. You know what you're letting yourself in for when you buy your cinema ticket or you click on the video link. You know you're opening up some potentially disturbing material and you take that risk when you do so. If you're triggered by things like abduction and stalking, you probably won't seek out slenderman things in the first place. It's different for things like fanfiction and fanart on places like tumblr because the stories often centre around the triggering thing - there are millions of stories centering around drug abuse, rape, suicide, etc. linked on tumblr, and you don't really get that specificity in a Slenderman work.

gekoladie wrote:

It's belittling to declare trigger warnings useless and pointless - thanks for demeaning people's responses to trauma as "gross". Comparing the warnings on a coffee cup to a trigger warning is actually pretty offensive, as is saying people who have experienced damaging things in their past shouldn't be on the internet. It's difficult to understand triggers unless you are a survivor of some traumatic event yourself because you've never had the joy of a flashback, which is scarier than every slender blog and vlog combined. 

Todesfurcht is not saying people who experienced damaging things in in their past shouldn't be on the internet. He's saying that people with extreme mental issues should away from slender man content or worse case scenario the internet in that case.

Todesfurcht wrote:

Trigger warnings are possibly one of the most dumbest things I have ever heard of. It wasn't until recently that we even needed these silly things put in place. People are getting waaaay too sensitive about everything.

What part of that isn't demeaning?

And it's not anyone else's place to declare who should or shouldn't be on the internet. We can't police internet users or define what they can or can't do based on their past. Sure, it may not be a great idea if someone with a serious mental health issue accesses potentially disturbing parts of the internet, but maybe a trigger warning would help dissuade them from watching something they probably shouldn't.

gekoladie wrote:

Todesfurcht wrote:

Trigger warnings are possibly one of the most dumbest things I have ever heard of. It wasn't until recently that we even needed these silly things put in place. People are getting waaaay too sensitive about everything.

What part of that isn't demeaning?

And it's not anyone else's place to declare who should or shouldn't be on the internet. We can't police internet users or define what they can or can't do based on their past. Sure, it may not be a great idea if someone with a serious mental health issue accesses potentially disturbing parts of the internet, but maybe a trigger warning would help dissuade them from watching something they probably shouldn't.

As Trodesfurcht It's their responsibility  if they are on the internet and should be careful where they click,search,watch and look and if they get a panic attack,it's not the creators fault. Not a great idea you say? It's an awful idea for someone who has extremely unstable mental issues to be internet. Trigger warnings are like don't drink and drive ads not everyone is going to obey them.

There is a time and place for trigger warnings, and it makes up about 10% of the times and places where they are used. They are abused so often that it's become a game of crying wolf, and ends up sheltering people more than anything. People should take enough responsibility to know when something might come up, which shouldn't be hard to do when something is marked with a very basic warning ("Rated R for What-Have-You") or, you know, designed to scare people. The entire "Milo's Tape" debacle didn't need to happen, because it should have said enough that Tribe Twelve gave a warning at all (which had never happened before), and had alluded to self-harm before. I say trigger warnings should only be applied to things with a direct impact, and don't need to be painstakingly specific when the implication is obvious.

Trigger warnings are nothing like telling someone not to drink and drive. If someone gets drunk, gets in a car and causes damage to persons or property, it's solely their fault and the harm extends outwards. Trigger warnings are a defense against harm that the mind directs against itself inwards. A panic attack is nothing like vehicular manslaughter. 

The internet itself is not an evil thing, and contrary to popular belief it isn't full of child pornography and images of hacked up corpses just waiting to jump out at the unsuspecting user. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find that stuff, but it also provides a mechanism of community support that some people can't find in the off-line world. That support for some mentally unstable people is vital, especially if they're unable to seek or obtain help IRL. 

It's not the creator's fault, but equally emphasising via ways other than specific trigger warnings would be helpful in deterring viewers who may be affected by the content. The reputation of the slender man mythos is sufficient that it's almost impossible to go into any vlog or blog totally blind these days. At the end of the day, you're not hurting anyone by dropping, in character, a line in the description saying "this shit is kind of disturbing, maybe not suitable for some people". It's up to the creator, and it isn't their fault if someone reacts negatively to their video. It's no one's fault, but we shouldn't be detracting from the usefulness of trigger warnings in some circumstances.

gekoladie wrote:

Trigger warnings are nothing like telling someone not to drink and drive. If someone gets drunk, gets in a car and causes damage to persons or property, it's solely their fault and the harm extends outwards. Trigger warnings are a defense against harm that the mind directs against itself inwards. A panic attack is nothing like vehicular manslaughter. 

The internet itself is not an evil thing, and contrary to popular belief it isn't full of child pornography and images of hacked up corpses just waiting to jump out at the unsuspecting user. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find that stuff, but it also provides a mechanism of community support that some people can't find in the off-line world. That support for some mentally unstable people is vital, especially if they're unable to seek or obtain help IRL. 

It's not the creator's fault, but equally emphasising via ways other than specific trigger warnings would be helpful in deterring viewers who may be affected by the content. The reputation of the slender man mythos is sufficient that it's almost impossible to go into any vlog or blog totally blind these days. At the end of the day, you're not hurting anyone by dropping, in character, a line in the description saying "this shit is kind of disturbing, maybe not suitable for some people". It's up to the creator, and it isn't their fault if someone reacts negatively to their video. It's no one's fault, but we shouldn't be detracting from the usefulness of trigger warnings in some circumstances.

I  was referring to drink and drive ads. I have being saying this for the past few posts. It's their responsibility not the creators. Even leaving a "this shit is disturbing" is pointless in the slenderverse, disturbing/crazy/depressing shit happens in every video/blog and it has gone so far that trigger warnings are pointless in the slenderverse .
The internet is not evil place on purpose but it's a horrible place none the less, probably worse for people who are really unstable.

Chieftain1 wrote:

gekoladie wrote:

Trigger warnings are nothing like telling someone not to drink and drive. If someone gets drunk, gets in a car and causes damage to persons or property, it's solely their fault and the harm extends outwards. Trigger warnings are a defense against harm that the mind directs against itself inwards. A panic attack is nothing like vehicular manslaughter. 

The internet itself is not an evil thing, and contrary to popular belief it isn't full of child pornography and images of hacked up corpses just waiting to jump out at the unsuspecting user. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find that stuff, but it also provides a mechanism of community support that some people can't find in the off-line world. That support for some mentally unstable people is vital, especially if they're unable to seek or obtain help IRL. 

It's not the creator's fault, but equally emphasising via ways other than specific trigger warnings would be helpful in deterring viewers who may be affected by the content. The reputation of the slender man mythos is sufficient that it's almost impossible to go into any vlog or blog totally blind these days. At the end of the day, you're not hurting anyone by dropping, in character, a line in the description saying "this shit is kind of disturbing, maybe not suitable for some people". It's up to the creator, and it isn't their fault if someone reacts negatively to their video. It's no one's fault, but we shouldn't be detracting from the usefulness of trigger warnings in some circumstances.

I  was referring to drink and drive ads. I have being saying this for the past few posts. It's their responsibility not the creators. Even leaving a "this shit is disturbing" is pointless in the slenderverse, disturbing/crazy/depressing shit happens in every video/blog and it has gone so far that trigger warnings are pointless in the slenderverse .
The internet is not evil place on purpose but it's a horrible place none the less, probably worse for people who are really unstable.

Drinking and driving ads are still not comparable to trigger warnings for the reason I stated. And I'd also like to refer you to my original point, that I do not want trigger warnings on slender vlogs and stuff because the reputation the videos and blogs have already. It was the bashing of trigger warnings in general that sparked this debate. Context is everything for everything, and trigger warnings are no different. It's no one's responsibility to control when and where they are triggered - that implies some measure of control. You can limit your exposure to things that could be potentially triggering, but it's up to the individual to choose what they watch. I'm pretty sure none of the creators set out with the intention of hurting people, but equally one doesn't watch a video with the intention of triggering themselves. This all implies that it's someone's fault, which it isn't. That's asking creators to apologise for making something deliberately scary actually scary and asking a victim of trauma to apologise for being traumatised. 

The majority of the internet is advertising and unless you look up specific stuff, you aren't going to be exposed to the worst - the worst being far worse than the slender man. That doesn't mean that we should bar all mentally unstable people from the internet or imply they shouldn't be allowed to use it. The real world is much worse.

gekoladie wrote:

Drinking and driving ads are still not comparable to trigger warnings for the reason I stated. And I'd also like to refer you to my original point, that I do not want trigger warnings on slender vlogs and stuff because the reputation the videos and blogs have already. It was the bashing of trigger warnings in general that sparked this debate. Context is everything for everything, and trigger warnings are no different. It's no one's responsibility to control when and where they are triggered - that implies some measure of control. You can limit your exposure to things that could be potentially triggering, but it's up to the individual to choose what they watch. I'm pretty sure none of the creators set out with the intention of hurting people, but equally one doesn't watch a video with the intention of triggering themselves. This all implies that it's someone's fault, which it isn't. That's asking creators to apologise for making something deliberately scary actually scary and asking a victim of trauma to apologise for being traumatised. 

The majority of the internet is advertising and unless you look up specific stuff, you aren't going to be exposed to the worst - the worst being far worse than the slender man. That doesn't mean that we should bar all mentally unstable people from the internet or imply they shouldn't be allowed to use it. The real world is much worse.

Drinking and driving ads maybe not same as trigger warnings but ARE comparable to each other, I'm talking about the fact that people WILL ignore them, it happens to both them . That's the point I'm trying to make if actually read my posts! Just putting up a trigger warning doesn't mean it will work. LOOK at Milo's tape that had a trigger warning but people still complained! Yes I know that  there's things worse than slender man and real world is worse. Also I'm not saying that victims should apologise for being "traumatised" but should be aware that it's their responsibility.  
My main point is: 
Putting up a tigger warning doesn't always work!
Hopefully you'll actually read my post this time......

Chieftain1 wrote:

gekoladie wrote:

It's belittling to declare trigger warnings useless and pointless - thanks for demeaning people's responses to trauma as "gross". Comparing the warnings on a coffee cup to a trigger warning is actually pretty offensive, as is saying people who have experienced damaging things in their past shouldn't be on the internet. It's difficult to understand triggers unless you are a survivor of some traumatic event yourself because you've never had the joy of a flashback, which is scarier than every slender blog and vlog combined. 

Todesfurcht is not saying people who experienced damaging things in in their past shouldn't be on the internet. He's saying that people with extreme mental issues should away from slender man content or worse case scenario the internet in that case.

Thank you for thoroughly reading my post.

Todesfurcht wrote:

Chieftain1 wrote:

gekoladie wrote:

It's belittling to declare trigger warnings useless and pointless - thanks for demeaning people's responses to trauma as "gross". Comparing the warnings on a coffee cup to a trigger warning is actually pretty offensive, as is saying people who have experienced damaging things in their past shouldn't be on the internet. It's difficult to understand triggers unless you are a survivor of some traumatic event yourself because you've never had the joy of a flashback, which is scarier than every slender blog and vlog combined. 

Todesfurcht is not saying people who experienced damaging things in in their past shouldn't be on the internet. He's saying that people with extreme mental issues should away from slender man content or worse case scenario the internet in that case.

Thank you for thoroughly reading my post.

Your welcome

Guys hopefuly this will not turn into a big argument
Everyone please stay calm, civil and respectful. (this is just a general suggestion to everyone who posts in here ;)Don´t worry, so far it is maybe a bit heated, but not over the top)

TailsFoxy wrote:

Guys hopefuly this will not turn into a big argument
Everyone please stay calm, civil and respectful. (this is just a general suggestion to everyone who posts in here ;)Don´t worry, so far it is maybe a bit heated, but not over the top)

Things have been quiet for a while for now.

Chieftain1 wrote:

TailsFoxy wrote:

Guys hopefuly this will not turn into a big argument
Everyone please stay calm, civil and respectful. (this is just a general suggestion to everyone who posts in here ;)Don´t worry, so far it is maybe a bit heated, but not over the top)

Things have been quiet for a while for now.

Yeah i saw it and that´s good.

If you do it ingame, it's fine. If someone b*tches about you not putting one, that is not fine. Here is a GRADE A EXAMPLE from a spoiler in my series so stop reading if you dont want that.

The Pun/Branches:

In short, bleugh.

I'm sure you of all people have the worst experience with people complaining about triggers and such. (See MichaelsCamera forced cancellation...).  

Other than the actual police report, the scene where Michael is slitting his wrists must have gotten a LOT of hates, and probably the one where Michael stabs June of Candles in the back of the neck, and the blood pours out and all.  There were some other things, the one where Michael gets his eye gouged out comes to mind.  Oh, and one can only imagine what responses the "This is what you wanted," video will get.  Ugh, people man.

^ Yeah I probably should've put some triggers in that series XD
whooooops

As Tails said, this needs to be civil. Keep the heat down to a whole...nothing. This topic is very sensitive. BOTH parties need to be POLITE and RESPECTFUL. (Yes, even if they are rude to you first! Kill 'em with kindness.) The Near has spoken. Now. Onward.

Adam Rosner made a video awhile back that had some "triggering" things about them. This is how this ordeal came up originally. The triggering thing had been hinted at for a long time. He even put "viewer discretion advised" in the description. Was that enough? Absolutely. TV shows do that. It is up the the viewer to take discretion. From a creator's viewpoint, putting a trigger warning on it would take away from my story. Not only is it giving away whats going to occur in the video, it's almost out-of-character. At least for me. If something is so very triggering, why would someone upload it to youtube? Does that make sense? I want to be in control of my story. And unfortunately for some people, triggers are not, have not, and will not be a part of my series. Because for me and my vlogs, they are just out of place. My series is a horror series. It will make you uncomfortable, scared, or what have you. And if you don't like that, that's fine by me. I'm not going to be offended if you don't watch my series because I won't be putting a trigger warning on it. I may do a "viewer discretion advised," but if that is not good enough, then I'm sorry. A comedy makes you laugh. A tragedy makes you cry. Action makes you feel adrenaline. Horror is going to scare you. If you have triggers, (and I don't mean this in a rude way, honest) then the Slenderverse is not for you. With horror comes horrific things. They go hand-in-hand. So, no, I don't think a series should have trigger warnings.